Celebrating Pride with Maybelle Center
Staff, volunteers, and Members did a beautiful job representing Maybelle Center at Portland Pride!
We asked everyone who visited our table to share what belonging means to you. The collection of answers is now hanging in the Community Room, where we can continue adding reflections.
As an organization, we are investing in a city where everyone belongs, no exceptions. We know that belonging starts with being seen, valued, and accepted for who you truly are.
Tabling at Pride, especially during such a tense political climate, is a way we celebrate everyone for their authentic self, while meeting new potential Members, volunteers, and donors. Because together, we can build a city where we all belong.
Learn the American Sign Language (ASL) Alphabet
Thurs, Sept 11th, 2:30-3:30 PM
Community Room
Have you ever wanted to learn American Sign Language (ASL)? The alphabet is a great place to start! Once you know the alphabet, you can practice “finger spelling,” which is an effective way to communicate with folks who use sign language if you aren’t fluent. We’ll practice together and send you home with flashcards so you can keep practicing!
Meet our Choir Director:
Kina Lyn Muir (she/her)
If you joined us for our Jukebox Singalong in the park earlier this summer, you may have met Kina--she was leading the songs and playing guitar at the same time!
Kina is a multi-instrumentalist, live performer, recording artist, and private music instructor based in the Portland Metro Area. A life-long musician, she is excited to share her joy and love of music with the Maybelle Community.
Join us Monday afternoons to sing along with some of your favorite songs with Kina and our choir! This space is all about sharing music together, so come join us (open to all levels of experience and ability).
Plus, if you are a musician who wants to play with other musicians, join us!
Upcoming Fall Event: Annual Retreat
More info coming in October!
A mix of quiet reflection and shared connection, the annual retreat is an opportunity to deepen your relationships with people at Maybelle Center. It will take place off-site and is co-created with Members, staff, and volunteers. Look for more information in early October.
If you’d like to participate as a volunteer, please contact Shane: 503-241-7374 ext. 3003, sskinner@maybellecenter.org.
Community Care: Plant Repotting Day
Fri, Sept 26th 2-2:30 PM
Community Room
Our beautiful new plant wall needs some love! We’ll dust all the plants, repot those that need repotting, and make propagation babies for folks to take home.
It’s fun and therapeutic to get your hands in the dirt, even with a small, indoor garden.
Volunteer Spotlight:
Meet Mary Ann Farley, SNJM
Written by Mary, Maybelle Center Program Manager
Every Monday afternoon from 1 to 3 PM, you’ll find Mary Ann faithfully visiting with Members at MacRes—offering presence, compassion, and a warm spirit shaped by years of experience as a volunteer, employee, and hospice chaplain.
Mary Ann’s connection to Maybelle Center runs deep. She was once part of the choir and worked on staff. When asked what keeps her coming back after all this time, Mary Ann’s answer was clear: “Interacting with the members and learning from them. We all have the same longing—to be connected and to belong. No one else is doing what Maybelle Center is doing!”
For Mary Ann, volunteering is deeply personal. “It’s about connection,” she says. “It’s spiritual. It’s a chance to affirm people, to show up not with answers, but with presence.” That presence has led to meaningful relationships—like with Vince, who calls her his sister.
To those considering volunteering, Mary Ann has some heartfelt advice: “Bring your friends and family down here to volunteer. Just don’t show up thinking we have something they don’t. Come ready to listen and learn. The Members give us just as much—if not more—than we give them.”
For her, the volunteer community has also always been part of the draw. “Getting to know each other matters too,” she says. “Volunteers connecting with one another—that’s where the magic begins. Everyone contributes to the sense of belonging.”
Small Kindness
By Danusha Lameris
A poem shared by Mary Ann, volunteer
I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, “Here,
have my seat,” “Go ahead—you first,” “I like your hat.”
From Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection (Green Writers Press, 2019).
Walk & Roll
Tue, Sept 23rd, 1 PM
Meet in the Community Room
Come enjoy the last Walk & Roll and Bocce Ball game for the year. As we plan for next year’s programming, let Siggy know if you would like Walk & Roll to return in Spring 2026. Email or call to let her know (storfason@maybellecenter.org, 503-241-7374 ext.3004)!
Mag
A poem by Jacob, Maybelle Center Member
If I could change one thing, I would not have to let him go.
I remember holding him for the first time. Just old enough
to be weaned. All I saw was the M on his brow. Magneto,
my tabby. Can't really see another with his black and grey
and not remember years I spent taking care of my boy.
Treated him as if he were my own son. There are a lot of
things I'd do differently. Yes. Having Magneto, my feline,
is not one of those things I'd change. What is can't be
changed. Fact. That is.
This poem can be found on pg 52 of the Write Around Portland Anthology, How We Are Together (Spring 2025)
Volunteer with CareOregon
Join the CareOregon Community Advisory Board
Use your voice to advocate for our community’s health care needs by providing valuable feedback to CareOregon as part of their Community Advisory Board. If you are interested in helping increase accessibility in healthcare, reach out to Courtney Blinkhorn (blinkhornc@careoregon.org) for more information.
This volunteer opportunity is not connected to Maybelle Center and was sourced from Community Services Network (csnpdx.org).
Patty's Coupon Corner
Monthly savings tips!
Written by Patty, Maybelle Center Member with a passion for saving, learned from the resourcefulness of her family.
More grocery tips:
- “Cheep” Chicken Mondays at Safeway: if Using the Safeway App, you can take home a whole chicken for $5.99
- Most Farmers Markets take food stamps and honor them at twice their value (so for $20 you get $40 to spend!)
Calling All Members and Volunteers!
Do you have artwork to share?
We'd love to feature your work in this newsletter!
Connect with Shane to be published (sskinner@maybellecenter.org, 503-241-7374 x3003).
Ongoing Opportunities
Changes to ongoing opportunities:
- Community Room Hours Change: Due to limited staffing, for now we are reducing our Friday hours and will close after Bingo (at 12:30 PM)
- Choir: Same day, different time! Choir will begin again Monday, Sept 8th, 3-4:30 PM
- Theatre: Theatre will be back in 2026!
- Maybelle Center will be closed: all day on Monday, September 1st, for Labor Day
- Street Books Mobile Library: Street Books updated their schedule and they no longer overlap with Maybelle Center hours. The best spot nearby is now Ground Score (on NW Couch & Broadway) on Wednesdays from 12:30-1:30 PM.
- Wildwood Paused for 2025: Due to budget and staffing needs, this year Maybelle Center will not be offering our annual trip to Wildwood. This was announced at our most recent Member forum. We know this event is much anticipated and well-loved and we hope to offer this outing again in 2026. We will continue to provide opportunities for connection and belonging. If you have any questions, feel free to chat with any staff.
Ongoing opportunities details:
- Community Room [Updated 2025 hours]: Monday, 1–3 PM; Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:30 AM - 2:30 PM, and Fridays 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM.
- CareOregon Advantage Q&A: 2nd Tuesday of the Month, 10:30 AM - Noon in the Community Room. Reps from Care Oregon will answer your questions on aging, disability, and Medicare. (Sept date: 9/9)
- Karaoke: On the 2nd & 4th Tuesdays of the Month, from 1:30 - 2:30 PM in the Community Room. (Sept dates: 9/9 & 9/23)
- Movie and Popcorn: Every Thursday 12:30 - 2:30 PM in the Community Room. Grab a bowl of popcorn and enjoy a classic film or new blockbuster together.
- Birthday Party: Last Thursday of the Month, 1:30 - 2:30 PM. A monthly celebration of member birthdays with cupcakes (gluten-free and sugar-free available). (Sept date: 9/25)
- Bingo: Every Friday, 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM in the Community Room. Join us for some friendly competition and get ready to shout "Bingo!"
- Choir: Mondays, 3-4:30 PM in the Community Room and online: maybellecenter.org/choirzoom
- Heart Circles: Every Thursday, 11:15 AM in the Classroom. A safer space for folks to speak from their hearts, to be heard, and to listen. This will be a combined group in place of Men’s, Women’s, and Rainbow Group, facilitated by a staff member.
- Member Forum: Quarterly, 12:45 AM - 2:30 PM in the Community Room. Join us each quarter to brainstorm new ideas, discuss any concerns, and eat pizza. (Next meeting date TBA)
- Theatre Class: Theatre will back in 2026!
- Monthly Member Music Jam Session: Last Thursday (Sept 9/25) in the Community Room at 3 PM. Come make music with fellow Members, volunteers, and staff.
- Online Chair Yoga: Monday mornings 9-10 AM. Join us via zoom every Monday morning to practice from your own chair. Enter the website into your browser (https://bit.ly/4jGzZmr) and then open the zoom meeting. If you are asked for more info, the meeting ID: 819 4753 4249 and the passcode is: 691908